It’s not every day you can walk into an upmarket shopping mall in West London and have the opportunity to be coached by a seven time NBA champion, but for some inner city school children, that’s exactly what happened today. The NBA have been running events at different cities across England this week as part of ‘Basketball Week’ where veterans including Dikembe Mutombo and Robert Horry have been on hand to coach basic basketball skills to British youngsters. At each fan zone event there has also been giveaways, competitions and 3on3 tournaments encouraging local players to get involved in playing organized basketball. Today, I made the journey from my weekend base, in the south east of the city, to the Westfield shopping centre in Shepard’s Bush to check out London’s version of 'NBA Fan Zone'.
After travelling across London via the tube (managed to jump on the wrong train just the once), I arrived at Westfield shopping centre at around 12:30 and followed the sound of shoes squeaking and basketballs bouncing that were coming from the centre’s main atrium. When I arrived I was greeted by the sight of a full size basketball court, featuring as many NBA logos and sponsors billboards as you could possibly fit into such a space. On the court, the Nets’ ‘Team Hype’ were acrobatically throwing down monster dunks after jumping from a trampoline, a routine which I’m sure they’ve performed during many a halftime show at the Prudential Centre on game nights. The Nets' dance squad were also on hand to add some glamour to the occasion, along with team mascot Sly. Toronto’s very own #95 ‘The Raptor’ was there for Raps fans in attendance (….that would be just me then) to high five and take photos with. Toronto’s mascot was also getting involved with the dunking show and trying to win over a few of the locals to support T-dot tomorrow night.
It was good to talk to some of the guys from the NBA who were helping to run the fan zone or were there to oversee the event. Everyone who has flew over for the games had said pretty much the same thing, that so far their routine had consisted of hotel to arena to hotel to arena to fan event to hotel…. Basically everything except the opportunity to see the sights and enjoy being in the city! I’m sure their sacrifice will pay off once Sunday rolls around and everybody attending the games/fan zones has had a whale of a time.
That’s exactly what I had this afternoon, in addition to the game night entertainment crew putting on shows for the crowd there were lots of other basketball activities going on to enjoy. One of the NBA sponsor’s, Foot Locker, had an arcade style three point shootout machine which fans could play for free for the chance to win a small prize. They also held hourly All Star Game style three point shootouts on the main court, with the winner of each competition receiving two tickets for tomorrow night’s game at The o2. Although I failed miserably at that contest (I’ll wear my participants vest around the house and gym with pride) I also took part in a two v two shooting competition which my team won. No doubt if Jay Triano was in attendance he would have been scampering to sign me and my team mate up to ten day contracts so we could drain some buckets during the games this weekend (as long as I didn’t have to pass a physical). Well, my prize for winning the contest was a lovely new Raptors t shirt which will go nicely into my collection of Raps merchandise. A collection which was also added to when a member of the Raptors game operations staff, who upon seeing me in my black Raptors t-shirt, was kind enough to give me a Raps scarf which I’ll be encouraging my Miami Heat loving friend to wave around at the game tomorrow night.
Several professional basketball coaches were on hand to provide coaching sessions to local kids as part of the ‘NBA Cares’ programme. The star of the show was special guest and seven time NBA champion Robert Horry, who in addition to running a couple of coaching sessions also took up a young fan’s challenge of a game on the three point shootout machine. Horry did better than former Nets star Devin Harris (if you don’t know about that story, check the video on youtube) and won the contest at a canter. The Larry O’Brien trophy was on show for London fans to meet and greet (maybe we’ll see the young onez place it in the ACC trophy case in the next few years?) and there was the chance to play the always popular NBA Jam video game on arcade machines. If you would have taken a wander over to the NBA League Pass section you would have been offered a 50% off subscription for the rest of the season too.
Everybody seemed to be having a great time, and I’m sure the NBA picked up a few new fans at the event. However the cynic in me couldn’t help but wonder how much more of a success the whole thing would have been if it was held last week, when London schools were closed for half term break. One Lakers fan told me that at one point during yesterday’s event, Dikembe Mutombo and Robert Horry were on the court with only a handful of people in attendance.
Was this a missed opportunity to really grab kids in the UK and charm them into a lifelong love-affair with basketball? Should the NBA have scheduled these games for last week, when the Raptors and Nets would be fresh off the all-star break and kids were out of schools? Or is there simply not the love for the NBA here that the league hopes there is? Whatever the answer to those questions, I’m sure the league didn’t plan on the only kids attending being those who were carted-in out of classes for photo ops. with Horry while wearing ‘NBA Cares’ t-shirts. Sure, the few kids and ardent basketball fans who were there had a brilliant time, but the crowd was sparse and mostly made up of passers-by and retail store employees on their lunch breaks rather than an influx of kids being there to play basketball for the first time.
The league could also have done a better job with marketing the event. Most of those who I was talking to at the fan zone had no idea it was going to be there until they showed up for a day at the mall. One guy, a London resident and a casual fan of the Raptors since seeing them whilst on vacation, didn’t even know that NBA games were taking place in the city this weekend. It’s all well telling those who already love the sport that the NBA is coming to town, but preaching to the converted won’t bring generations of new players or fans to the league – which ultimately must be their goal. The more people in the UK who play/watch basketball, the higher the merchandise and league pass revenues on NBA.com will be. Although many families are already priced out of the London games, if the league can increase their fan base, then going forward it will find selling out high priced events in this country a much easier thing to do, without bringing in the so called ‘superstar teams’.
Back to this weekend’s games, I managed to get a little scoop on some of the league’s plans for the game night experience. Although the Nets are the designated home team this weekend and it will be mainly their game night entertainment on show, the Raptors will be getting a 50/50 split of promotional activity and video board content. Both teams’ entrance videos will be played before player introductions and Toronto’s mascot ‘The Raptor’ will again be on hand to drum up support for the red and black.
I’ll post a selection of photos from today’s event at the end of this blog and will be back later tonight telling you all about the gorgeous o2 Arena, where less than 24 hours from now the Raptors and Nets will be battling hard for two points in the standings. Don’t forget you can follow me on twitter @TomHurley
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